Started from his slumbers, Ahab, face to face, saw the Parsee; and hooped round by the gloom of the night they seemed the last men in a flooded world. "I have dreamed it again," said he.
亞哈從睡夢里驚醒過來,跟那個祆教徒面面相覷;在那朦朧籠罩的夜空中,他們倆象是大洪水留下來的僅有兩個人。"我又夢到了它,"他說。
Of the hearses? Have I not said, old man, that neither hearse nor coffin can be thine?
夢到了靈車嘛?你這老人家,我不是跟你說過,靈車也好,棺材也好,都沒有你的份兒嗎?
And who are hearsed that die on the sea?
哪個死在海上的,還有靈車?
But I said, old man, that ere thou couldst die on this voyage, two hearses must verily be seen by thee on the sea; the first not made by mortal hands; and the visible wood of the last one must be grown in America.
不過,我說,老人家,你如果死在這趟航程上,那么死前一定真會讓你見到海上有兩只靈車;頭一只可不是活人做出來的,另外一只卻準(zhǔn)是用出產(chǎn)在美國的肉眼看得到的木頭做的。
Aye, aye! a strange sight that, Parsee! — a hearse and its plumes floating over the ocean with the waves for the pall-bearers. Ha! Such a sight we shall not soon see.
嗨,嗨!這倒是個奇觀,老朋友:一只扎著羽毛的靈車漂洋過海,海浪做扶棺人。哈!這樣的景致我們倒不是馬上就看得到咧。
Believe it or not, thou canst not die till it be seen, old man.
信不信由你,你一定要看到這東西以后才會死,老人家。
And what was that saying about thyself?
那么你自己呢?
Though it come to the last, I shall still go before thee thy pilot.
不過,到頭來,我還要走在你前頭,做你的引港人呢。
And when thou art so gone before — if that ever befall — then ere I can follow, thou must still appear to me, to pilot me still? — Was it not so? Well, then, did I believe all ye say, oh my pilot! I have here two pledges that I shall yet slay Moby Dick and survive it.
既然你要先走了——如果是真的話——那么,在我跟著你走之前,你還一定要到我這邊來,還要來領(lǐng)我去嘛?——是不是這樣?唔,那么,我就算相信你的話吧,我的領(lǐng)港人呵!可是,我還得發(fā)兩個誓,不是我殺倒莫比-迪克,就是它殺倒我。